By Debby Woodin
dwoodin@joplinglobe.com
Members of the Joplin City Council debated Monday night whether 504 respondents to a parks survey were representative enough of 23,000 households for city leaders to use the results in deciding on planning and spending for future projects.
In other business, the council agreed to build a walking trail at McClelland Park and to go ahead with design plans for softball fields at the Joplin Athletic Complex. The council informally agreed to give city employees pay raises of 3 percent.
City employee raises were tabled during budget talks in September because of concerns about economic woes and a dip in sales tax proceeds.
The 3 percent raise, which Councilman Michael Seibert said might be too much if the city faces much increased cost for employee health insurance next year, will cost about $800,000. But sales tax revenue was up in January, the council was told. The city also has about $20 million in its general fund that is uncommitted, city staff members told the council.
Survey report
Council members heard a presentation by Lynn Onstot, public information officer, on the results of a survey that showed that building hiking and biking trails, and routing them to local parks was a top priority of respondents. The survey was mailed to all Joplin households, with hard copies available at city buildings and a version available online.
There were 504 responses. Three-fourths cited walking and jogging as top interests, and half or a little less listed picnics, swimming and playgrounds. Slightly less than one-third checked golf, and about one-fifth, or about 100, preferred soccer, basketball and baseball. A few less listed softball and competitive swimming as main interests. Tennis, disc golf, skateboarding, geocaching, and roller-skating or in-line skating rated votes by 16 percent or less of those surveyed.
The majority of those who answered the survey, 60 percent, were ages 30 to 60.
The survey is to be used to help formulate plans for parks and recreation projects, including what might be included in a request to renew a quarter-cent sales tax for parks and stormwater projects that is due to expire in 2012. That tax, approved with a 10-year sunset by voters in 2001, has funded about $20 million in projects so far.
Snapshot?
Onstot told the council that the survey is a snapshot of public opinion, but several council members disagreed.
Councilman Bill Scearce said he would hate for the council to decide future spending based on the relatively small number of responses.
“There is a whole group of citizens not included in this — young families with children,” he said. “What we’ve got is a survey of those who responded, not of citizens.”
Mayor Gary Shaw challenged that conclusion by asking, “So should we throw it away?” Scearce responded that it was not a scientific survey. “It’s not all of our parks’ users,” he said. “It’s just a very small percentage of them.”
Scearce has vocally led an effort to build four softball fields at the Joplin Athletic Complex, citing the desire of adult softball players who complained to a past council that there are not enough fields and that maintenance of existing fields has been lax. A fourplex of fields that could accommodate child and adult softball, and recreational or tournament play, could cost up to $3.1 million.
Another council member, Benjamin Rosenberg, said the survey results are usable. Methodology was cited in the report, done by Opinion Research Specialists of Springfield. It carried an error rate of plus or minus 4.5 percent, which Rosenberg said is reasonable for a statistical survey.
“There are a lot more people than I realized interested in trails,” Rosenberg said he learned from the survey.
Mayor Pro Tem Mike Woolston said the survey did not represent visitors to the city from the surrounding communities and what might bring them to Joplin.
Seibert said he found no surprises in the survey details other than the age groups that were not represented. About 60 of the respondents were under the age of 29.
Shaw said young families are industrious. “Maybe people will speak up if they feel they weren’t represented,” he said.
City Manager Mark Rohr said the city will hold other events to get public views.
Walking trail
In other business, the council agreed to spend about $300,000 on an expanded version of a walking trail at McClelland Park. The council earlier rejected a plan for a small exercise trail looping the park’s playground. This trail will wind through the woods below the playground and link to a proposed future trail along Glendale Road that would go west and south to McIndoe Park and Grand Falls or north to the medical district around 32nd Street.
Walking trails at McClelland and Schifferdecker parks were promised to voters from the existing parks and stormwater tax’s proceeds. A proposed Schifferdecker trail also was scuttled by the council, with some members saying a master plan needs to be developed for that park before any money is invested in a trail.
Softball fourplex
The council informally agreed to go ahead with designing a softball fourplex at the Joplin Athletic Complex that would include bleachers, lights and a concession stand, but to allow the city staff to come up with a design for parking lots. That would save about $50,000 in design costs.
The engineering firm for the project, RDG of Kansas City, would charge $194,330 to design the complex without parking lots, compared with $242,000 with the lots.
The fourplex could cost up to $3.1 million, depending on how much of the project the council agrees to construct at one time.
